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Buying green laser, preferably NovaAlpha+2x shades

krk

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Oct 6, 2007
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Hello

I am interested in buying either a ~15-55mW or a 200mW+ laser or both.
Most interested in a good deal on a Novalasers alpha series + 2 pairs of shades.

I live in sweden so the seller have to be willing to ship i there (usps airmail preferably).

Edit: Changed to prefer NL alpha instead of WL Evo 15-55mW and Techlaser 250mW+, they seem to have really good price/performance ratio.
 





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Re: Buying Wicked Lasers Evo or Techlasers Crossfi

Bit of advice - Don't.
Wicked Lasers and Techlasers both STINK for reasons that will continue to be outlined below this.
Go for a Nova Alpha or maybe a Optotronics RPL.
 
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Re: Buying Wicked Lasers Evo or Techlasers Crossfi

hey krk, welcome to LPF :) i'd definitely avoid wicked lasers and their "affiliate" techlasers if i were you - starting with WL, they are overpriced and often have serious quality problems. i've heard many people with their really high power lasers talk about them being below the stated power and faulty, and my own wicked lasers purchase, a 15mW executive, started mode switching, flickering, and then completely died, all within 14 hours of arrival at my house and with relatively light usage. i sent it back for a replacement, and got back a laser which while not mode hopping, is incredibly unstable in terms of brightness (and thus, i guess, power output), goes dim-bright-dim-bright-dim-bright all the time. plus, wicked laser's "laser community" is a mysterious place, where all reports of broken WL lasers or criticism of their products magically vanishes into thin air, and competitor's names must never be spoken!

as for techlasers, they've done nothing but lie since they started up. first they claimed to be the official distributor of CNI lasers - untrue, as laserglow are the official distributers. they also claimed prominently on their website to sell "all laserglow, optotronics and dragon lasers" - though i'm pretty sure it's been proven that they're selling cheap counterfeit clones, and funnily enough that claim is now removed from their website. their website is full of crap in general, for example their orange laser page states:
Synthesized from two separate laser beams, a 1064nm and a 1342nm laser beam, the Xerex orange laser is a landmark in Laser technology with its unprecedented use of micro diodes to produce a vivid 593.5nm orange beam. It is truly a magnificent rare new technology that’s a must have for laser pointer collectors.
which makes it sound like they think they invented orange lasers or something. unprecedented use of micro diodes my bum. then there's this from their blue laser page:
The Astro blue laser pointer offers a stunning sapphire color beam with increased brightness and power. The solid aluminum sturdy barrel is equipped with revolutionary heat sink and cooling technology; it comes with 100% duty cycle meaning; it can be turned on indefinitely without over heating. With the Astro blue laser, you can do what no other blue lasers can; project a clearly visible blue beam across the night sky.
no other blue laser can... produce a blue beam? then what the hell do all the other blue lasers make, yellow beams??? or do other blue lasers just mysteriously fail when pointed at the sky? i have no idea what they were smoking when they wrote that. they also seem to think they invented heatsinks. revolutionary! sorry, but i find those quotes simultaneously hilarious and disturbing. like their beam specs for one of their IR lasers, which says output is between 1mW and 400mW.... that's an incredibly vague number! i guess it means noone can complain when they get a 1mW IR laser for a stupidly high price.... so, yeah, i hope that shows why you should really avoid those companies.

there's far better alternatives, for example, nova lasers (www.novalasers.com) sell the very nice, small, and cheap X series, and the slightly more expensive but better heatsinked alpha series, as well as the high powered nova series. i know i love my X85, performs great, and with nova you tend to get *more* power than you paid for. actually, with most reputable handheld laser companies you tend to get more than you paid for... for really high powered lasers, optotronics (www.optotronics.com) and laserglow (www.laserglow.com) have great reputations. the optotronics RPL is a nice rechargable laser, with models up to about 350mW (which is actually rated 356-370mW) and adjustable output if you choose the adjustable tailcap, everyone i've seen review an RPL seems to love it and i'm saving for my own RPL-300 :) the laserglow aires looks like a nice little laser to me, and most people with a laserglow hercules seem incredibly happy with it (even if they do joke that with it's size it could be used as a baseball bat, but i guess that fits the name!) - it goes up to a 400mW model by standard, and laserglow also offer even higher rated ones when they're available. so yeah, there's better and cheaper alternatives out there :)

whatever laser you do get in the end though, i hope you're happy with it! and i hope this info is helpful to you :)
 

krk

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Re: Buying Wicked Lasers Evo or Techlasers Crossfi

Ah, Novalasers Alpha series have really good prices.

Just need to decide what i want to buy. I read the posts about nes_ds shades that it is hard to see a 50mW beam with them.

Basicly i want a green laser that i can use safely with a homemade x/y scanner at home without having to worry about eye damage if i should get a beam in the eye (yes i plan to have shades on ;D). But i also want it to be able to see the beam.

Would a 200-300mW green laser + nes_ds shades be safe even if you got a beam reflected from a mirror straight in the eye? Or should i get a weaker one and hope that i can see the beam trough the shades?
 
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Re: Buying Wicked Lasers Evo or Techlasers Crossfi

If you are looking to use it in an X-Y scanner go for a 'labby' type. Lasers that are not handheld, have an external driver, and more often than not thermoelectric cooling.
These 'labbies' will often give you more power for less price, and definitely reliability and ease of mounting. [urlhttp://www.laserglow.com/index.php?laboem]LaserGlow sell them.[/url]
And good shades are a MUST when dealing with anything over 50mw. Even if you can't see the beam, use a camera and display. NEVER skimp on the shades because it only takes a microsecond hit to blind you forever.
 

krk

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Re: Buying Wicked Lasers Evo or Techlasers Crossfi

Yea, i would rather pay more for a laser with higher output than to use it without shades. I think i will lurk the forums a while and hope that someone will sell a used 200mW+ laser.

I might get a X105/Alpha105 from Novalasers if i decide that i cant wait any longer... They should be bright enough to use with nes_ds shades right?
 
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Re: Buying Wicked Lasers Evo or Techlasers Crossfi

Hey KRK, I just send you a PM you may wanna read ;)
 
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Re: Buying Wicked Lasers Evo or Techlasers Crossfi

the lower power evolutions are ok
and they look really good
as for techlasers, nobody really has any proof that they're selling junk
 

krk

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Re: Buying Wicked Lasers Evo or Techlasers Crossfi

What really annoys me, is that someone sold what i now realize was a 200mW+ novalaser (had the aluminum case that they show on their webpage) on a Swedish website for 1400sek (about 215usd) last week. When i emailed the seller it was already sold :/.

I guess he didn't know what is was worth.
 
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Re: Buying Wicked Lasers Evo or Techlasers Crossfi

that sounds too good to be true
should be careful
 

krk

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Re: Buying Wicked Lasers Evo or Techlasers Crossfi

me_too_lazy said:
that sounds too good to be true
should be careful

Well, it looked exactly the same as on novalasers.com, alucase etc. But i guess ill never find out since he already sold it to someone else.
 
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Re: Buying Wicked Lasers Evo or Techlasers Crossfi

Still, if you're going for a XY scanner go for a labby! Really!
 

nes_ds

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Re: Buying Wicked Lasers Evo or Techlasers Crossfi

Ok, that's a common misconception, actually I used the shades for attempting to burn with a 15mW EVO, the shades worked fine up close, but I can just barely make out the dot when I'm viewing it from 20ft+.

BTW, Barry, have you got the EVO yet? :-?
 
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Re: Buying Wicked Lasers Evo or Techlasers Crossfi

not yet
dont worry about it
usually takes awhile for stuff to get past the border
my guestimate is Tuesday, since Mondays a holiday
 

krk

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Re: Buying Wicked Lasers Evo or Techlasers Crossfi

BlueFusion said:
Still, if you're going for a XY scanner go for a labby! Really!

Well, i want to be able to use it for other stuff aswell, not just a XY scanner. So i want a handheld one.
 
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Re: Buying Wicked Lasers Evo or Techlasers Crossfi

krk said:
[quote author=BlueFusion link=1191656780/0#11 date=1191682781]Still, if you're going for a XY scanner go for a labby! Really!

Well, i want to be able to use it for other stuff aswell, not just a XY scanner. So i want a handheld one. [/quote]

Hi krk,
I just sent you a pm.

Jack
 




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